Baldur's Gate #BaldurGate: Siege of Dragonspear

[Gauldur's Bait]

This is a bit late but I'm amused by how Gauldur's Bait is scandalized by the game having 9/11 & War on Terror references. "Why aren't you mad, guys? PROPAGANDA!"

But most anti-SJWs are focused on the sexual identity stuff (trannies, feminism) and don't really care about that kind of political reference. As likely Trump supporters they're not big fans of Middle Eastern intervention anyway.

I wasn't scandalized by it at all, and I mention in that post that the dragon skeleton "can" be read as reference to 9/11. It may or may not be intended as such. And as I mentioned in a later post, I had a chat with a senior games developer about that specific point, just to get second opinion and he agreed with me that indeed it might be such a reference.

Off Topic: And I seriously absolutely do not support Trump, oh dear, how did you arrive at that conclusion?. I believe Trump to be an absolutely incompetent leader - and many other things as well and the amount of support he is getting is shocking. And I don't really consider myself anti-SJW either, but as many have pointed out, I as well really would have liked to see BG left out from that debate. That was the main cause of my disappointment of the game. As I have mentioned before, the issues the SJW guys are forwarding are complex issues that deserve be treated as such and not so blatantly and shallowly black-and-white as in SoD, taking precedence over the game and its mechanics (hopefully those errors are patched).

If Beamdog wants to promote those issues in that shallow way, they should get their own IP to do it.

EDIT: Some typos/clarifications.

 

[Infinitron]

Er, I didn't.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

Er, I didn't.

Good.

 

[Lilura]

After a long break I have resumed my walkthrough of Siege of Dragonspear: here is Part IX.

Enjoy.

 

[DeepOcean]

It is interesting, content wise SoD isn't even that bad, I liked the dungeon with the dwarves, the old cyric temple wasn't bad too, some random encounters were well done and all have little stories not being just random monsters like on BG 1, Bridgeford was cool, you could make multiple decisions and it had some CnC too. I was having fun with the gameplay but for some reason I was getting bored and gave up right after Bridgeford as my patience ran out. It is obvious Beamdog sort of glued all those pieces together without much tought on how to make a coherent whole.

This game is linear but somehow still manages to have pacing issues. Bridgeford should be right after Baldur's Gate, actually, if they were going to just lazily cut some parts of Baldur's Gate City, why not having everyone you needed to meet on an inn instead of making you waste time walking around on an empty Baldur's Gate city? You should go to the Bridgeford right away instead of you wasting even more time wandering on the empty trash mob ridden forests. The long time it takes for the little there is of story to move on can kill your interest fast, this game needed badly some better excuse for your motivations, as you do all this stuff, you start wondering why? The story is just not present for most of the game, most quests are banal fetch affairs and the gameplay isn't a surprise to anyone that played both BGs.

The game should take you to a first confrontation with the Shining lady ASAP, at least gave you the option of doing so. After you take Bridgeford, the Shining lady decides to make a move to destroy the Baldur's Gate army before the Daggerford and Waterdeep dudes can arrive. This would give a chance for something to happen for fucks sake (It is interesting that you are fighting for Baldur's Gate but you barely know anyone on the army you are fighting for.). You have an opportunity to face the Shinning Lady fast and have some opportunity for the villain to show herself interesting (no game, TELLING she is cool isn't enough.). Right after failing to defeat the Baldur's Gate army in time, the Shining Lady decides to retreat and return to the DragonSpear castle.

However the Baldur's Gate army is severily wounded and the crusaders set up alot of traps and ambushes on the way, you kinda have to save the Baldur's Gate army as the supplies were destroyed and there are thousands of wounded. So, there is a reason for you to go exploring the areas around and helping the army as much as you can, the side quests all had something to do with helping the army and not some fetching shit, for you to fuck care about the people you are helping. You eventually find the Cyric temple and the dungeon with the dwarves but it didn't need to be so railroaded as it was on the game.

 

[animlboogy]

I should clarify that I haven't played Siege of Dragonspear, and never really intended to even before all of this controversy broke out since I've never really cared too much about a proper 'bridge' between BG1 and BG2 (I was always fairly satisfied with the explanation given to you in BG2's prologue) and I didn't really like the idea of it being done by some unknown studio.

I did, however, recently complete BG2:EE, and I am thoroughly unimpressed by Beamdog's writing skills if their original characters are anything to go by.

I just started the EE for the first time and it's kind of shocking how bad it is compared to the rest of the game. I don't even think the new companions are that bad by themselves, it's the content that surrounds them that doesn't work at all.

There's such an obvious shift in quality when you go to Meera's wild mage hideout. They didn't even attempt to follow the BG2 dialogue style of 1-2 short comments before the next line. It's a ton of verbal diarrhea. Every character there has a list of like five things you can ask them, all mundane questions about their entire life's story. And then you get the simplest fetch quests from almost everybody: Find all of my cats. Fetch me a cask of booze. I dropped a keepsake, please pixel hunt until you find it.

It's awful stuff. I always thought of BG2 as a lot of light fluff, but the contrast to Beamdog dumping in modern RPG writing into the game really highlights how professional a lot of BG2's approach was.

I'm doing Yoshimo's Shadow Thief questline just after digging through that wild mage trashheap and I actually respect the game so much more because of it. They communicate the contrast in personalities between Renal Bloodscalp and Mae'Var by simply having them talk about relevant things. The Beamdog version of this content would be like, Renal telling you exactly how he worked up the ranks, and Mae'Var blabbing on about how his parents beat him up and he used to take it out on the neighborhood cats.

I don't have any issue with hearing that stuff from your actual companions (except Aerie, who needed to shut the fuck up about her wings), I'm just aghast at the idea that they really think it's interesting to talk to 8 different NPCs and hear every single one's life story.

 

[Trias_Betrayed]

I tried it, didn't really get that far into it it just gets really boring pretty fast. All the characters are pretty annoying, surprise I don't care about single mom nigger (though I appreciate the irony in SJWs making the nigger the single mom), or Safana, or any of the other faggots they decided to use. Your actual dialogue options seem to usually be restricted to what they find appropriate or at least non-offensive, I would've sent the refugees back and confiscated their coats but that wasn't an option. I didn't get to the parts about torture being useless or whatever but anyone that thinks that obviously is stupid.

 

[sstacks]

So is Siege of Dragonspear canon now?

Since they worked with WotC on it, I'm pretty sure yes.

 

[Orobis]

So is Siege of Dragonspear canon now?

Since they worked with WotC on it, I'm pretty sure yes.

Well it's official than, just like what george lucas did with the star wars prequels, Baldur's Gate series is now forever tainted with the filth of Beamdog.

 

[Orobis]

Movie:
It's a coming!

Movie? What movie? The fuck you talkin' aboot?

Spoiler

You mean like this movie?

 

[Musaab]

Surely their next D&D game will be better. Surely.

 

[Telengard]

Movie:
It's a coming!

Movie? What movie? The fuck you talkin' aboot?

The New Dungeons & Dragons Movie Has a Director
Germain Lussier

Last Summer, when Warner Bros. got the rights to make a new Dungeons & Dragons movie, it seemed like a pipe dream. But now a director has been hired and a trip to the Forgotten Realms is closer than ever.

Variety reports that Rob Letterman, who recently helmed Goosebumps, has an offer to direct the film from Warner Bros. He was among a group of directors vying for the project but a recent presentation sealed the deal for him.

When news of the film originally broke, it stated that it would be set in the Forgotten Realms, where many of the most popular D&D characters reside. And while we don’t know if that character or others will be in the film, we do know the script was written by David Leslie Johnson (The Conjuring 2, Orphan, Wrath of the Titans).

If Letterman is now on board, it seems like Dungeons & Dragons be could hitting theaters as early as 2018, though that’s speculative.

It's reboot time!

(As if the first trilogy of movies wasn't already way too many.)

 

[Trias_Betrayed]

Problem?

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

So is Siege of Dragonspear canon now?

Since they worked with WotC on it, I'm pretty sure yes.

Too bad Baldur's Gate 2 got retconned already w/murder in Baldur's Gate book. It's not like any of this means anything.

 

[Delterius]

If anything the more dreadful parts of the EEs fit in with the book canon.

 

[Theldaran]

Likely WotC saw the Warcraft movie and they went red with envy. It's sad that Warcraft is way bigger today than D&D... but not that surprising, D&D remains a neckbeard product despite all the efforts to expand the player base. Warcraft just has a wider appeal.

I myself haven't watched the Warcraft movie as I don't follow the franchise, but people generally talk good of it.

 

[Morality Games]

"sigh" Marvel movies destroyed comic books with mass pop cultural appeal, now the time has come for tabletop gaming to get a taste.

Well, "destroyed" is a strong word. "Finished off" would be closer to the mark.

 

[Orobis]

I myself haven't watched the Warcraft movie as I don't follow the franchise, but people generally talk good of it.

Yea i saw it, the hard coded chinese subtitles were annoying but anyways...it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be, though it was still crap story wise, it managed to keep a good sense of adventure throughout, Garona was my favourite character, would never have thought i'd ever want to fuck a half-orc but, there you go. It's worth a watch if you're a Warcraft fan, just not worth the money.

 

[Theldaran]

I mean, it probably isn't a groundbreaking movie, today hardly any movie has a great story, but among the rest, it can't be that bad (if everything is bad, you're allowed to be a bit bad, too). And the best part is that it has sold a lot of tickets, that's what has WotC crying in butthurt.

But fret not, for the D&D movie will probably slip under the radar. It won't ruin anything because I don't see people swarming into the game. And the movie's quality is out of the question.

 

[Volourn]

On game: L0L FUCK THIS SHIT. Everytime I see the BG nam,e I wanna buy it... then I see Beamdog and I say FUCK THAT.

On movie: I wonder if it will follow FR characters like Drizzt or Elminister 9I';m sure they'll have cameos if not) oir it'll be a new original adventuring party. I hope for the latter and then you can sprinkle in named characters. Unless they plan to do the Drizzt/Icewind Dale series in movie form.

 

[ArchAngel]

If the D&D movie does not follow Drizzt, the producers of the movie are fucking idiots. While he might not be very great character for book nerds, he has that wide screen appeal of taking Legolas and Aragorn and mixing them into one character. How you can not make a good action adventure movie with a character like that?!
They just need a competent director, a good enough actor and enough money so the movie does not look cheap.

 

[Volourn]

Not to mention, it is a character that pushes the SJW Agenda without any real effort. Even Drizzt gets gets cut up in his prujdices... then again, the typical SJW Nazi wouldn't know what to do with drow.. a black race ruled by powerful women but almost all of whom are evil to the core... on one hand you have strong womanxz.... who act like men and go around raping others... and use their power to go and enslaves and murder others... LMAO

And, I agree, Drizzt's story would/could be a hit in the theatre.. if done right... it couldn't be any worse than the other D&D movies.

 

[Melcar]

If the D&D movie does not follow Drizzt, the producers of the movie are fucking idiots. While he might not be very great character for book nerds, he has that wide screen appeal of taking Legolas and Aragorn and mixing them into one character. How you can not make a good action adventure movie with a character like that?!
They just need a competent director, a good enough actor and enough money so the movie does not look cheap.

I wonder which Hollywood dindu will they cast for "urban youth street smarts" Drizzt.

 

[Trias_Betrayed]

Would have to be one like Sterling Brown or something that's a bit more soft-spoken and erudite because good luck getting some bixnoodmuhfuggah pronouncing elvish words and shit

 

[Trias_Betrayed]